Heartbreak as Bangladesh-India land swap splits families

2015-07-31 18:00

Nimai Barman (R), 30, Shufola Barman (L), 22, and their five-year-old Shimanto, residents of Dalaha-Khagrabari in the Bangladeshi district of Panchagarh, pose for a photograph in their home. (Suvra Kanti Das, AFP)

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Dahala-Khagrabari - Chapala Barman is heartbroken
as she contemplates leaving the home she has known all her life ahead of a
historic land swap between Bangladesh and India that will divide her family.

The exchange at midnight on Friday will end one of
the world's most intractable disputes that has kept thousands of people in
limbo for nearly 70 years.

But it will also rip apart families like Barman's,
leaving some stranded on one side of the border while relatives relocate to the
other.

The 60-year-old Hindu is preparing to leave her
home in Dahala-Khagrabari, a small island of Indian land inside Muslim-majority
Bangladesh, with three of her sons.

She will have to leave four other grown-up children
and their families behind in Dahala-Khagrabari, which is about to become part
of Bangladesh.

Her three daughters have married Bangladeshis,
making them ineligible to move, like her eldest son who was not counted in a
joint census of the enclaves conducted in 2011.

"These days I can't stop my tears thinking how
can I live without them," Barman told AFP ahead of the handover.

The two nations will hoist their respective flags
in 162 enclaves – 111 in Bangladesh and 51 in India – at one minute past
midnight (18:01 GMT on Friday) to assume sovereignty over the territories
following a border agreement in June.

For many of the 50 000 people living in the
enclaves the exchange means an end to 68 years of struggle, cut off from their
national governments and unable to access vital services like hospitals and
schools.

But it has also meant choosing between staying put
and adopting a new nationality or leaving the homes where their families have
lived for generations.

The vast majority will stay. But around 1 000
people on the Bangladesh side have opted to keep their Indian nationalities,
meaning they will have to relocate by November.

Fear and uncertainty

In Dahala-Khagrabari, around 400km north of Dhaka,
Muslims who had chosen to become Bangladeshi citizens were rehearsing their new
national anthem and preparing to celebrate.

But in Hindu-dominated parts of the enclave, the
atmosphere was tinged with fear and uncertainty.

Jiro Bala, a 75-year-old Hindu, is ready to leave,
and has even put by 100kg of rice and lentils for the journey.

She recalls how her family was forced to leave
their home for the Indian mainland during Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence
with Pakistan.

They returned to find their homes looted, and more
recently she says, the residences of some Hindus were torched.

"We suffered in India because we left
empty-handed. But this time I am prepared," said Bala.

Those leaving are doing so for a mix of reasons,
some economic and some religious.

Santaram Barman, 65 and a devout Hindu, wants to
see out his days in a Hindu temple in Siliguri, in India's West Bengal state
which neighbours Bangladesh.

For others, the decision over whether to leave has
not been so straightforward.

Srichandi Barman and his brothers were all set to
go to India until one day their parents bluntly refused to leave.

"They told us they would rather die here... We
tried to persuade them, but they would not budge," said Srichandi.

So on Thursday, just a day before their enclave was
due to be handed over to Bangladesh, Srichandi and his brothers rushed to the
district town of Debiganj to try to cancel their applications to move to India.

Debiganj chief government administrator Shafiqul
Islam said 42 people had made such last-minute applications, and their fate
would now be decided by Dhaka and New Delhi.

Such decisions have torn families apart, with
ambitious young people moving to India and leaving behind parents who are
either afraid to move or just want to stay where they grew up.

"I told my sons who are going to India that if
my heart says no, they can't keep me there," said Chapala Barman as she
wiped away her tears with her sari.

"I'll start walking back to Bangladesh. I
won't be scared, even they shoot at me."

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